Making changes

Making changes has seemed to be my theme throughout 2009 and I plan to continue on the same path.  Most of my changes have revolved around slowing down our life, educating ourselves (in lots of areas), and what better than FOOD!  I have been on a journey to make sure my family enjoy the simple things in life and enjoy eating the good things in life.  Good as in wholesome, nonprocessed, natrual food.  You would probably be surprised aboout the kind of  things you are putting in your body with everyday items from the supermarket.  Not only are we eating  better but buying better.  Buying better as in buying local and knowing where our food comes from and what is put into it.

 Some of the changes I made over 2009 are;  I have started raising turkeys, growing a garden, canning and freezing ALOT from my garden, going to a local produce auction and purchasing the rest of the produce we ate and stored, making my own cheese and butter from raw milk, learning how to make my own bread, pasta, bagels, pitas, purchasing our eggs from a local farm/friend, researching GMO and organic qualifications, purchasing organic and heritage seeds for my garden this year. So I have made alot of good steps toward the ultimite goal which is feed my family better and support our local farmers.

Now one goal that I hope to move forward with this year are to raise more of our own meat and start buying more of our meat from a local organic grower.  As I was driving home from an appointment today I saw a sign for a meat/butcher so I decided to go check it out. It was a jackpot. Turns out he grows his own beef, buffalo, elk and pork.  All naturally with no hormones, antibiotics or preservatives. What a great find!  I bought hamburger, steaks, sausage and buffalo burger(well he threw that in for free so I could try it). His prices were GREAT too!  So all that to say I am making changes and some time changes can be hard other times they are just plain delicious!!

 Some other goals for this year are to store away more for the winter months, which in turn means a bigger garden, start milking our goats, plant fruit trees, not allow our land to be farmed using pestiside anymore(it is land we own and rent to farmers). These are the ones I have planned and I am sure that as the year goes by I will do what I can to add more to that list.

If you have any kind of desire to make any of these changes for you and your family alot of this may seem overwhelming but my best advice is even if it is something small it is a step in the right direction. Just take one step at a time and only take on what you can handle. Don’t get overwhelmed by trying to do it all “right now”. You will look back in a year with a list as long as mine or even longer!